With the latest advancement of photographic technology there arises a strong demand for improving the silver halide photographic light-sensitive material so as to have a higher sensitivity, a higher-quality-image-forming capability and a shorter-time processability than ever before.
For example, in the recent medical X-ray diagnostic field, the increasing number of diagnoses and the increasing number of films to be radiographed per diagnosis have now prompted a strong demand for developing technology capable of not only rapidly processing a vast number of angiographed films and X-ray films radiographed in operations but also providing high-speed and high-quality X-ray images for use in diagnoses.
To meet the above demand, a light-sensitive material comprising silver halide tabular grains has lately been developed. The tabular grain, since it has a specific surface area large enough to absorb a lot of a spectrally sensitizing dye, has the advantage that it enables the reduction in cross-over rays as well as the sensitivity improvement.
The tabular grain, however, is disadvantageous because of its inferior resistance to pressure. For this reason Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereinafter abbreviated to JP O.P.I.) No. 99433/1984 proposes to improve the tabular grain's resistance to pressure by having the grain provided thereinside with a high-silver-iodide content phase, and JP O.P.I. No. 14636/1986 discloses a method for improving the pressure resistance by making the iodide content of the central phase higher than that of the peripheral phase of the tabular grain.
However, these methods based on the use of the iodide are certainly recognized effective in improving the grain's resistance to pressure, but, on the other hand, significantly affect the developing or fixing rate of the grain; for example, if the average silver iodide content of the whole grain is raised, there occurs a problem of not only retarding the developing or fixing rate of the grain but also resulting in decline of the grain's solubility in water to thereby cause a residual color stain-increasing trouble due to sensitizing dyes or other dyes.
We, the inventors of the present invention, have earlier disclosed in our U.S. Pat. No. 5,081,007 a method for processing a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material, which specified the silver halide photographic light-sensitive material's overall transport line length (hereinafter merely called `line length`) range from the light-sensitive material's entry into the developer surface in the developing bath up to the outlet of the drying section.
The invention in the above publication specifies that the line length from the developer surface entry point in the developing bath up to the surface of the fixing solution in the fixing bath shall be equal to or longer than the line length from the fixing solution surface entry point up to the surface of the wash water in the washing bath. That is, since the fixing time is equal to or shorter than the developing time in the above method, the method was found disadvantageous in respect that if applied to a rapid processing with a low-replenishment-rate fixing bath, it causes a fixing failure and a residual dye stain trouble.
In the rapid processing of the silver halide photographic light-sensitive material, reduction in the use of replenisher solutions as well as in processing solutions is an important issue.
Namely, in the London Dumping Convention, LDC, adopted in 1972, the framework for sea dumping of wastes was issued, under which appropriate regulations have been taking place to date. The 13th LED Council held in November 1990 adopted a resolution for banning sea dumping of industrial wastes by the end of 1995, whereupon photographic processing chemicals waste fluid is to fall under this category, and therefore it is essential to reduce the using amount of replenisher solutions.
The replenisher solution supplied to an automatic processor is normally comprised of the same components as those of a running developer solution, and replenishment of it is conducted to make up for the loss equivalent to the exhaustion of processing chemicals by oxidation. As for the replenishing procedure, JP O.P.I. No. 126243/1980 describes a method in which replenishment is controlled according to the film width and feeding speed; JP O.P.I. No. 104946/1985 describes a method in which replenishment is controlled according to the film area to be processed; and JP O.P.I. No. 149156/1989 discloses a method in which replenishment is controlled according to the number of pieces processed in succession. However, because the replenishing amount disclosed in these methods is from 500 ml to 150 ml/m.sup.2, reducing the replenishing amount is urgently needed from the environment protection point of view.